6 speakers, 4-ch amp, differing impedance

[nicholaschase29]

Hi Everyone - Quick question for a noob. I have a Yamaha 242 jet boat with 6 speakers. There are two in the bow, two around the cockpit and two in the rear swim platform area. Currently the 6 speakers are connected directly to the head unit with 4 outputs. I can only assume the bow and cockpit speakers (4) are piggybacked and connected in parallel. Assuming 4 ohm speakers all around that should have the impedance on the bow/cockpit at 2ohms and impedance at the swim platform speakers 4ohms. The system works fine but I'm looking to add an amp and possibly a sub down the road.

I'm looking at the NVX VAD11005 V2 5 channel amp. The amp is able to drive between 2-4 ohms on the channels. I was going to keep the bow/cockpit speakers in parallel with one another (zone 1 - 2ohm) and the swim platform speakers (zone 2 4ohm) wired together as they currently are, and connect them to the four outputs of the amp. For now channel 5 will remain open.

So my question is, Running channels 1 and 2 at 2 ohms and channels 3 and 4 at 4 ohms.

1 - There shouldn't be an issue with the amp to handle those differing values as it's rated for it correct?

2 - should I expect a different volume from the bow/cockpit speakers vs the swim platform speakers, or will the amp simply put out more power to the bow/cockpit speakers connected in parallel? If there is a volume difference this can be ironed out by adjusting the gain on the amp?

3 - would I be better off running two 4 channel amps, rewiring the speakers and dedicating a channel to each speaker?

TY in advance,
Nick

 

[jthackman]

i'm no pro, and there are some on here who may chime in, but you're correct.
with one amp and different loads per channel, you'll need to adjust the gains to balance output.
one or multi-amps prob depends more on your future plans.

not sure about your year, but i think the 2015-2020 242 boats had some speakers run in series....for less amp load (more ohms, less output)?

new speaker wiring would eliminate guessing and give you more control of zones/channels, and you could run led wiring at the same time.

 

[nicholaschase29]

Thanks for the input. The boat is a 2011 SX242.

 

[AZMark]

It's probably wired in series from the factory, so 8 ohms on that set currently.

I have a similar setup as you're planning on with 2 sets of speakers wired in parallel at 2ohms running on one channel and a single set at 4ohms running on another.

The lower resistance to the 4 parallel speakers lets the amp put out more power than the other set so it works out well. I have the gains on those channels set pretty evenly and the volume is similar from all speakers.

 

[Cambo]

If you have an ohm meter you can measure the resistance

To really get good sound and control of the sound the best thing you can do is add an EQ and install a subwoofer on the 5th channel. Most stereos have front rear and sub RCA out puts these connect into the eq

Boats are an open air environment and need constant adjustment based on use example sitting idle Vs motors running and driving. The eq will allow easy adjustment without going into sub screens and distracting your driving. Also the type of music requires subwoofer adjustments good luck trying to change that while driving with the eq makes it simple and can be done by feel. You can also send an auxiliary signal in keep some plugs on that can hook up to iphones or androids to quickly use a friends play list on there phone or get a cheap player loaded with play lists. so much flexibility and they are cheap